HalloWing Magic 9 Ball - Adafruit Industries

HalloWing Magic 9 BallCreated by John Park

Last updated on 2019-04-15 04:32:52 PM UTC

Overview

Making difficult decisions can be tricky and stressful. This project will help you take off some of the pressure, insteadletting your HalloWing-based Magic 9 Ball do the heavy lifting of your decision making!

By harnessing the HalloWing's accelerometer to detect when the ball is turned upside down and right side up (orshaken), we'll then run a highly mysterious algorithm (OK, it's just a random number generator, sorry) to choose animage file to show on the TFT display.

A stylish housing filled with swirly mystery fluid completes the effect. Will you love building this project?

INDICATIONS SAY YES

1 x Adafruit HalloWing M0 ExpressSkull-shaped ATSAMD21 board w 1.44" 128x128 TFT display

ADD TO CART

1 x Lithium Ion Polymer Battery3.7v 500mAh

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1 x DIY Snow Globe Kit108mm Diameter

ADD TO CART

1 x Black Nylon Screw and Stand-off SetM2.5 Thread

ADD TO CART

Materials & Tools

In addition to the above parts, you will want the following:

Food dyeWaterGlycerin (optional)Super Pearl Dust (used in baking to add shimmer, thanks to Epbot for the tip (https://adafru.it/Cz7)!)E6000 glue (optional)Double stick foam tapeOptional: 3D printed cap, mounting plate, and HalloWing case (if you don't have a 3D printer, you can send thefiles to be printed, or simply double-stick tape your HalloWing to the regular snow globe cap)

© Adafruit Industries https://learn.adafruit.com/hallowing-magic-9-ball Page 3 of 18

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3900








http://www.epbot.com/2016/10/diy-pensieve-punch-glowing-shimmering.html

Build the Magic 9 Ball

Mix the Mystery Fluid

The Magic 9 Ball derives much of its power from the mysterious roiling fluid contained within the orb. Here, for the veryfirst time, we shall reveal the secrets of the unfathomable fluid!

Get ready for the secrets to be revealed! -- We'll mix water with super pearl dust (also called shimmer dust), foodcoloring, and optional glycerin. The dye gives the mix its color, while the pearl dust provides the moving, glittering view


into the complex fluid dynamics going on in there while it is thinking.

Add a very small amount of the pearl dust to the empty

globe.

Fill halfway with water, then add dye and swirl it around.

I used five drops of yellow to two drops of red here.

Fill the rest of the way with water, up to the level of the

stopper cap.

Press the stopper cap into place. You can glue this in

with silicone sealant or E6000 glue if you like, for extra

safety.


https://learn.adafruit.com/assets/62249



This is a fun time to test it out -- screw on the original cap and swirl the orb to see the intricate fluid motion!





HalloWing Prep

The HalloWing will be the brains and display of our Magic 9 Ball.

Ready the Battery

Plug your Lipoly battery's JST plug into the battery port

on the HalloWing.


Use double-stick foam tape to affix the battery to the

board as shown.





Prepare the Cap and Mount

The cap, spacer and mount are all 3D printed. I modified these parts that were created by the Ruiz Bros. More info onthe HalloWing M0 Express Wearable Case here (https://adafru.it/CzV), and the threaded ring came from their excellentAutomatic Dice Roller project (https://adafru.it/CzW).

Below are the model files you'll need. These were printed in PLA plastic with 0.2mm layer height.

https://adafru.it/CzU

https://adafru.it/CzU

You'll also need two 10mm long M2.5 nylon screws and nuts to affix the HalloWing case bottom to the spacer.



https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3108276

https://learn.adafruit.com/automatic-dice-roller/3d-printing

https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/062/273/original/nine_ball_models.zip?1537508374

Assemble

Snap the HalloWing into place in the bottom mount, then place the spacer into the cap as shown.

Screw the mount into place, thread on the nuts and tighten them. Then trim the screws flush with diagonal cutters. Thisprevents the screws from interfering with the fluid cap.


Screw Cap onto Globe

Now, we can screw the cap onto the globe -- just make sure the stopper is securely in place!

Finally, snap the HalloWing case cover into place.


Plug in a USB cable and next we'll program it!


Code with CircuitPython

Image Player Firmware

This project requires CircuitPython version 4.0 or higher. Refer to the HalloWing CircuitPythonpage (https://adafru.it/CmJ) for ensuring you upload the HalloWing version of CircuitPython 4.0 or greater.

To load the CircuitPython firmware, plug in the HalloWing over a known good USB cable to your computer and thendouble-click the reset button on the HalloWing. This will put it into bootloader mode, allowing you to change thefirmware. You'll see a USB drive appear called HALLOWBOOT.

Drag the .uf2 file you downloaded onto the HALLOWBOOT drive. Once it copies over, it will automatically restart andshow a flash drive named CIRCUITPY. Then you are ready to load a CircuitPython program that can take advantage ofthe display capabilities.

https://adafru.it/Em7

https://adafru.it/Em7

File Format

To prepare your graphics for the HalloWing, you'll need to size them to 128 x 128 pixels. You can do this in nearly anygraphics program, such as Photoshop, GIMP, Preview on osx, ImageMagik, MS Paint, you name it!

Save your file as a 24-bit .bmp file. Here you can see some example graphics.

Here is the full set of answers for your Magic 9 Ball. Download the file and then unzip it.

Drag the .bmp files onto your CIRCUITPY drive as shown.

https://adafru.it/CDi

https://adafru.it/CDi


https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-hallowing/circuitpython

https://circuitpython.org/board/hallowing_m0_express/

https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/062/680/original/nine_ball_answers.zip?1538157010

Magic 9 Ball Code

This program is pretty simple in what it does -- it loads a random image onto the screen using displayio.TileGrid while

fading the backlight up with board.DISPLAY.brightness

Then, whenever the HalloWing's accelerometer detects the board has been turned upside down or shaken, it dims thebacklight, selects and displays a new image, and brings the backlight up again.

Adafruit really likes using the Mu editor to edit the CircuitPython code. See this guide on loading and usingMu (https://adafru.it/ANO).

Copy the code and then paste it into Mu. Save the file to your CIRCUITPY board as code.py.

The board will restart and then play an image. Try turning the Magic 9 Ball upside down and then back up -- you'll seea new image appear!

Answer Any Question

You can now unplug the USB cable (plug it back in any time to charge the battery) and use the Magic 9 Ball!

Ask it a yes or no question, such as "Have we reached the mother ship yet?", then turn the ball over (or give it a shake),then turn it right side up and the answer will present itself in all of its wisdom!

Tip: Images inside of a folder on your HalloWing won't be seen by this image player code below, only files atthe root level of the HalloWing are seen. So, you can swap files in and out of folders to quickly change yourimage set!

�

Temporarily unable to load content:


https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-circuitpython/installing-mu-editor



Microcontroller Selection Oracle

Here's another interesting use of the Magic 9 Ball code -- you can create a random microcontroller selector for allthose times you just aren't sure which amazing CircuitPython-capable Adafruit board to get from Digi-Key, who aregoing all-in on CircuitPython (https://adafru.it/CAj)!

This will display a randomly selected board and show the product name, image, and Digi-Key product number!

Simply load these images linked below onto the board (you can place the Magic 9 Ball images into a folder you makeon the HalloWing and they won't be selected for viewing).

https://adafru.it/CAk

https://adafru.it/CAk


https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/blogs/2018/python-on-hardware?utm_source=online&utm_medium=vanity&utm_campaign=python

https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/062/362/original/dk_quest.zip?1537557910

This is just an example we created for our friends at Digi-Key, but we hope it also serves as a leaping off point for youto come up with your own creative uses for the image randomization of the Magic 9 Ball!

© Adafruit Industries Last Updated: 2019-04-15 04:32:51 PM UTC Page 18 of 18

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HalloWing Magic 9 Ball - Adafruit Industries